Every office needs a printer, be it in inkjet, laser, or thermal form. Having a printer that can produce documents both quickly and accurately is essential to the functioning of any business, large or small. While the initial cost of most printers is quite reasonable, continued replacement of their printer ink and printer ink cartridges as they are used up, can be extremely expensive. Most OEMs such as Xerox, HP and Dell will offer bulk discounts for their ink, and guarantee that it will work with any of their products. Many of these suppliers also assert that their ink will work cross-brand if a company needs it to.



While buying OEM is certainly a viable option for a company, it can also be a money sink. Some companies have chosen to opt for another method – refilling printer ink cartridges. This has become a common practice, and can be done both online and by local vendors. Typically, these companies will also sell remanufactured ink cartridges, which contain a very similar blend of ink to the OEM versions, and are also constructed in a nearly identical way. When an OEM cartridge is taken to be refilled, the ink used will be almost a match with the original, but never quite the same, as all ink producers have their own special formula.



Most ink refillers and after-market retailers will offer guarantees that their product will work with your existing printer setup, and this is by-and-large the case. Issues can arise, however, if the ink cartridge fails or if there is a jam of some kind in the printer. Most printers will carry a warranty that states it is void if anything except OEM parts are used, and this includes printer ink. While it is unlikely that the ink itself could cause a malfunction in the printer, the manufacturing company will be under no obligation to fix the printer if they become aware that a refilled or after-market cartridge was used.



While most businesses will experience no problems with refilled ink, it is a cost/benefit situation. If all of the printers in the office were to suffer a malfunction, having them all with voided warranties could be very costly. By contrast, continuing to pay for OEM ink can add up very quickly, almost to the point where replacing the printers would be of a similar price. While after-market printer cartridge makers offer guarantees of compatibility, there is little a business can do to use these. The supplier would likely furnish a new cartridge but would not fix or replace the printer. Although refilled ink cartridges are a faster and cheaper method, they carry with them their own risks.